On Sunday morning at 10:23 a.m., Le Devoir columnist Fabrice Vil posted a video to his Facebook page. For the next five minutes and 23 seconds, he talked about language, particularly the language that has been used surrounding the SLĀV and Kanata debates.

The two theatrical productions by Quebec director Robert Lepage have drawn charges of cultural appropriation. SLĀV, the “theatrical odyssey based on slave songs” featuring a mostly white cast, presented as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, was cancelled this month after just three performances.

Kanata, Lepage’s forthcoming collaboration with Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil, in Paris, looks at Canadian Indigenous history, including residential schools and missing and murdered Indigenous women, but features no Indigenous performers.

In his video message, Vil referred to a use of language that “dehumanizes black people.” In doing so, he put his finger on something I had been thinking not 24 hours before upon reading Mnouchkine’s comments in defence of Kanata.

On Friday, Mnouchkine spoke with Presse canadienne (PC) from France, where she had returned after coming to Montreal to meet with Lepage and 35 Indigenous representatives on Thursday evening in response to the group’s open letter published in Le Devoir the weekend before.

In the interview, Mnouchkine pitted the Indigenous representatives against the protestors who had spoken out against SLĀV, saying, “The First Nations representatives were much more human, friendly and tolerant. I didn’t sense at all the same brutality (as with SLĀV).”

Divide and conquer is apparently Mnouchkine’s modus operandi. As Vil correctly stated in his video, the black and Indigenous communities are on the same side in this struggle, that of attempting to reclaim some of the cultural real estate that has been taken from them surrounding their own stories.

Mnouchkine’s words play into egregious stereotypes for both groups — that of the noble savage, on the one hand, and of the violent (not to mention less “human, friendly and tolerant”) African descendants, on the other.

Lepage, for his part, steered clear of such incendiary language, but nonetheless let a few things slip during his 49-minute interview with Radio-Canada’s Stéphan Bureau on Saturday, wherein he expressed surprise at the “anger” he has had to confront with the two productions.

He made reference to the “cordial, firm, clear, well-written,” open letter from the Indigenous representatives — as if those were all prerequisites for credibility, and with the subtext being that such an approach stands in contrast to one of a different kind.

In other words, don’t anyone get too excited or emotional when talking about issues of oppression that have afflicted your people for hundreds of years.

Although he doesn’t say it, Lepage too seems to be outlining what is and is not acceptable in terms of dissent and how it is presented. Near the end of the interview, in talking briefly about SLĀV, he refers to “some people who got the show cancelled.”

In his open letter following SLĀV’s cancellation, he wrote of having been “muzzled.”

Mnouchkine, to PC and to Indigenous representatives on Thursday, spoke of censorship. And therein lies the other trope — that black protestors somehow censored SLĀV. It’s an easy argument if you want to portray yourself as a victim, which Lepage and Mnouchkine do repeatedly.

But the fact is, neither the black nor Indigenous communities have the power to censor anyone. A culturally mixed group of up to 100 mostly black protestors showed up on the opening night of SLĀV at the jazz fest. Yes, things got heated, but that’s what happens at protests — people shout. (And as I’ve said previously, the only incident of violence at the event occurred when an elderly woman attending the show slapped a black protestor.)

On the second and third nights of SLĀV, only a handful of protestors showed up, and spoke quietly with curious passersby. In other words, it was very chill.

Then SLĀV star Betty Bonifassi broke her ankle, and almost a week later the jazz fest cancelled the rest of the show’s run, attributing the decision to Bonifassi’s physical condition and “security concerns.”

From there to talking about censorship — particularly on the part of protestors — is quite the leap.

They’re not the only media outlet to fall into this trap, but such use of language contributes to the broader, mediated conversation that distorts reality, and in doing so misrepresents the legitimate concerns of black and Indigenous people regarding cultural productions that deal directly with the history of their communities.

In the ongoing discussion around SLĀV, Kanata and cultural appropriation, Lepage, Mnouchkine, the media and everyone else have a responsibility to be more careful in our choice of words.

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